Mother Shipton's Cave

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I am sleeeeeepy today!  Actual conversation I had with the hubs last night:

Me:  Holy cow, is it really 10:30?! (we usually go to bed by 9:30 at the latest because we're boring old people)
Hubs:  *checks time on phone* Yep.
Me:  Wow, I am REALLY stupid!  *keeps reading book*

Sigh...no matter how old I get, I still want to read past my bedtime!  Actually, I have a cross stitch pattern that says that in my Etsy cart right now, haha!  But anyway, we're here to talk about scrapping!

This layout goes along with the Knaresborough one I shared last week, which is why I kept Misty Moonlight as one of the colors and used Baroque Motifs again for the accents.  I used a photo for my page title, even though I took the picture of the sign from the back so the text is backwards.  If I'd taken it from the front, it wouldn't have been a silhouette--can't remember what, but there was something behind the sign looking at it from the other direction, and I liked the silhouette effect.

Today's color palette:  Misty Moonlight, Old Olive, Rococo Rose, Tip Top Taupe, Sahara Sand, and Whisper White.  I really liked Tip Top Taupe, it was a fabulous neutral color.  Speaking of fabulous neutrals, I am going to miss Cinnamon Cider SOOOOO MUCH when it retires...

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Baroque Motifs
Ink:  Rococo Rose, Misty Moonlight, Basic Black marker
Paper:  Misty Moonlight, Old Olive, Thick Basic White, Urban Oasis DSP, Paper Blooms DSP
Accessories:  None

Knaresborough

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I read somewhere once that you should fill your New Year's Day with the things that you want your whole year to be filled with, so I spent time with my family, had a cup of tea, bought a book, had another cup of tea, read a book, worked on a scrapbook layout, and did some cross stitching. : )  I am definitely going to try to get more scrapping done in 2022.  In the meantime, here's one of the few layouts I made in 2021.

Photos are from our first trip to Scotland; Knaresborough was our last stop in England before we drove into Scotland.  The boat picture in the bottom right corner inspired me to add some Poppy Parade accents to my blue and green layout.  Also Baroque Motifs was such a fabulous stamp set, it was fun to play with it again for this layout.

Today's color palette and sorry the photos are both bluish today, it can be very hard to get good photos of my stuff when it's super cloudy.  Anyway, color palette:  Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Misty Moonlight, Poppy Parade, Basic Gray, and Whisper White.  And with that, it's time for me to get my workout on and get ready for work today.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Letterpress Alphabet, Baroque Motifs
Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Poppy Parade, Misty Moonlight, Basic Gray marker
Paper:  Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Misty Moonlight, Thick Basic White, Trimming the Town DSP
Accessories:  None

Edinburgh Castle

Mornin'!  Scrappy Monday is Scrappy Tuesday this week :) I did good yesterday, I got up early and did my workout AND I stuck to the diet all day long and drank about half an ocean's worth of water (unsalted, of course).  And this morning I woke up about 10 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off.  Then I just had to convince Ryan that even if Mama is up, it is NOT time for him to be up!

Anyway, scrapbook pages.  Once again I have a stack o' pages that I need to take pictures of, including more pages from this trip to Edinburgh.  But let's start with what we've got, hmm?

See the pictures here and here.  I picked the color palette based on that picture on the far right of the metal...thing...with rust on it:  Cajun Craze and More Mustard for rust and yellow, and then Midnight Muse for a contrasting dark blue.  Since castles are mostly gray/brown, that means I have lots of leeway when choosing color schemes to scrapbook the pictures.

I think that picture of my dad is funny, he looks like he's talking to some Monty Python characters :D

As I mentioned before, the color palette for today includes Midnight Muse, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Island Indigo, and Very Vanilla.  Though I think it's hard to tell from the pictures that there are two colors of blue on here, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Rough Type, Artistic Etchings, Baroque Motifs
Ink:  Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, More Mustard
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Spice Cake DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies

China: Dong Fang Hotel

Happy China Sunday, y'all!  I'm just truckin' through the Beijing layouts and pretty soon we're going to be all done with the China albums.  Guess I'd better get cracking on Ryan's baby book so I can start sharing that?

We switched tour guide companies in Beijing to go with the ones who were doing the Great Wall marathon, and they were nowhere near as good as the China Odyssey Tours people we had for Shanghai, Guilin, and Xi'an.  The hotel was a giant step down too, I think the beds were comprised of rocks rejected for use in the Great Wall.  But I made this layout for the hotel anyway!  I love that Primrose Petals pattern on the right, it was from a Valentine pack of patterned paper a few years ago.  I started out with it going across the layout, where the Perfect Plum layer is now, but then I scrapped that and switched the colors around and I like it better now.

The colors are Tip Top Taupe (I liked this one, I should use it more), Primrose Petals, Marina Mist, and Perfect Plum, every single last one of which is now retired.  But they will live forever in my scrapbooks!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Baroque Motifs
Ink:  Marina Mist, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Tip Top Taupe, Marina Mist, Primrose Petals, More Amore DSP, Marina Mist & Perfect Plum DSP
Accessories:  Lettering template

China: Sofitel

Mornin', y'all!  Once again, it's China Sunday and today we start the scrapbook pages from Xi'an.

Once again, these pictures of our hotel rooms are courtesy of Missy.  This was a five star PLUS hotel and definitely the nicest one I've ever stayed in, though Bennet and Missy had a room with a wall of mirrors that was next door to a maintenance room or something so that was kind of creepy (somebody's watching meeeee!).  We also had some laundry done while we were here, and the clean laundry was delivered in a very fancy basket and wrapped up all pretty.

I busted out a real old favorite here--Baroque Motifs!  Man I loved that stamp set.

Today's color palette includes Fresh Fig, Baja Breeze, Baked Brown Sugar, and Very Vanilla.  Three of those colors sound like part of a dessert recipe and the fourth sounds like it could be some kind of mixed drink, don't you think?

Well, since it is now officially September, I'm going to go make a pumpkin spice coffee cake for breakfast.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, mostly SU!
Stamps:  Baroque Motifs
Ink:  Fresh Fig, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso marker
Paper:  Fresh Fig, Baked Brown Sugar, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze DSP
Accessories:  Lettering template

Friday Flashback: Sincere Salutations

Thank goodness it's Friday, kids.  Not my best week ever.  I will neither confirm nor deny that I ate brownie batter for breakfast today.  Is it weird that I like brownie batter better than actual brownies?  Don't answer that.  Also, I laugh in the face of salmonella.

But anyway, I bring you today's slightly late Friday Flashback.  Today's retired stamp set of choice is Sincere Salutations, and I remember how excited we stampers were when it first came out--eight sentiments in a pretty classy mixed-font format, what's not to love?  So again, this flashback would take a week if I put up every single project I ever made with this stamp set.  Let's just select a few, shall we?

Also features Baroque Motifs

And right off the bat this one might be my favorite of the bunch.  I like the color combination :)  And of course Baroque Motifs can do no wrong.

Also features Natural Beauty

My long-ago SU! upline used to do that thing like on this card where a smaller-than-A2 card is folded and then backed up with a piece of colored cardstock; not really my thing but it did let me do a nice bow on the side of this card.

Also features Pretty Peony

Some pretty purple peonies for a birthday...

Also features Roses in Winter

And Christmas roses.  Yeah, Sincere Salutations has got you covered for most events.

Also features Stippled Stencils, Weathered

The sentiment showed up better IRL on this card than in the scan (and this was so long ago that it was a scan rather than a photo)--it's embossed in gold.

Also features Wonderful Wings, Filigree

One last card featuring one of the gorgeous butterflies from Wonderful Wings, and also last week's Friday Flashback set of Filigree.  And now for this week's new creation:

I'm pretty pleased with it.  I used the color challenge from ColourQ:

And apparently I was influenced by the picture in the challenge graphic too, because I think that's what made me reach for Medallion.  I also used this week's Retro Rubber Challenge sketch:

In the spirit of the challenge, I've had Sincere Salutations for I suppose 11 years because I think I got it when it came out; Medallion dates from 2011 so five years, and True Friend I've had for 9 years.  Yeah, I think I got the "retro" part of the challenge covered this time ;)

Well, hubs just got home and he's taking me out to dinner so that's it for me.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Sincere Salutations, Medallion, True Friend
Ink:  Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, Tangerine Tango, Night of Navy
Paper:  Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Accessories:  Circle punches, Regals Candy Dot, Tangerine Tango ribbon from Sale-a-Bration a couple of years ago

Friday Flashback: It's Your Birthday

Happy Friday, y'all!  We are currently prepping for Snowmageddon, which is slated to start this afternoon.  But in the meantime, I have a Friday Flashback for you!  Today's stamp set is It's Your Birthday, and who doesn't need a great set of birthday greetings?  In fact, I'd used this set so much that I only picked about half of what I had in my archives to share otherwise we'd still be doing this flashback *next* Friday.  So let's giddyup!

Also features Bronc Buster, Paisley

First is a birthday card I made for my brother a few years ago.

Also features Floral, Roses in Winter

And here's one for my mother's great aunt...

Also features Baroque Motifs, Embrace Life

Honestly I don't know who I sent this to, it's a rare square card.

Also features Bloomin' Beautiful

This "someone like you should be celebrated every day" stamp is done in the same font as the "happy birthday" above so you could use them together.  Or just use this one for a card and it doesn't have to be birthday-specific.

Also features Dream Gardens

 I do love my Oriental stamps :)

Also features Pun Fun

Here's a cute little one I did for my mom, who loves hippos.

Also features Mixed Bouquet

I made this one for one of my favorite people in the world, who has sadly passed away.  Miss you, Neelu!

Also features Petal Prints

Let's be honest, this is one of my favorite cards.

Also features Wing It, Flannel Plaid

And one more kinda masculine card to round out the group.  Are you ready for today's new creation?  Here it is:

My friend Tiana (who doesn't read this blog, so I'm not giving away any birthday secrets) came out to visit at the beginning of the month and mentioned when we were out shopping that she wanted some super-soft comfy pajama pants.  And since her birthday is next week, I found her some ridiculously cute ones at Kohl's, they're black and have foxes on them and look kinda like this card :D  The jammies are more of a raspberry color than coral, but I only have Calypso Coral embossing powder so I went with that.  I loved these so much I ordered some for myself, and I also got her a set of Star Wars jammies because awesome.  The Star Wars ones have purple in them so this card kinda matches both.

Anyway, I used a sketch from the Retro Rubber challenge site, my very first time to play along over there!

If I got both It's Your Birthday and Fox & Friends when they first came out, then I've had It's Your Birthday for TEN years and Fox & Friends for 6.  And I still love them both :)

Ok, I'd better get moving before Snowmageddon starts.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  It's Your Birthday, Fox & Friends
Ink:  Basic Black, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Black, Lavender Lace, Lucky Limeade & Calypso Coral DSP
Accessories:  Circles Framelits, retired heart punch, Calypso Coral EP, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: En Francais

Happy Friday, friends, and welcome to this week's Friday Flashback!  This week's randomly chosen retired stamp set is En Francais, and it just might be one of my most-used background stamps.  Even with picking and choosing just some favorite projects from the archives to share today, this is gonna be a long flashback...let's go!

Also features Artistic Etchings, Circle Circus, I {Love} Love Wheel

It's only natural to pair En Francais with the Eiffel Tower from Artistic Etchings...I did that quite a few times actually, but I picked these to share today because I like the collage effect.

Also features Carte Postale

Here's another French-inspired creation with a fleur de lis.

Also features Baroque Motifs, All Holidays

En Francais also makes some pretty Christmas cards.  I like how this one has the traditional red and green but also Elegant Eggplant for something different.  And I made this card before I learned how to tie pretty knots :)

Also features Illuminations, Bella's Border wheel

I *love* the stamp set Illuminations, love love love it.  This was for one of those annoying all-neutral color challenges.

Also features Stippled Blossoms, Christmas Messages

 Another Christmas card, this one of a more recent vintage.

Also features Joyful Christmas

And this is one of my favorite cards ever.  I love the white watercolored poinsettias.

Also features Stem Silhouettes, Print Pattern, Sincere Salutations

One more less-traditional Christmas card.

Also features Pretty Peony, Lovely Letters Alphabet

And a pretty monogram.

Also features Simply Sketched

This one is a little bit different with the script stamped in such a dark color, so it's a bolder element than most of the cards on this post but I still thought it worked well for a sympathy card.

Also features Perfectly Penned, Flower Shop

You can just see the script stamped in white on the background squares.  And that's all I'm sharing from the archives, which is maybe half the cards o.0  Ready for a new creation?

It's Friday Flashback day and I still got to play with my brand-new Watercolor Wings :D  For the white squares, I pressed an acrylic block into my Whisper White ink pad and used it like a stamp--it came out with more ink around the edges and less in the middle without me even trying, which was great since that's what I wanted it to do.  I used three different stamps to make the butterfly (actually four, counting the antennae), but I ended up having to cut it out by hand because where I stamped the butterfly body didn't jive with the matching Framelit.  Note for next time:  cut out the butterfly and stamp the body on afterward.  That baker's twine bow was a pain too, it took four tries to get something that looked halfway decent.

But anyway!  I used this week's ColourQ colors:

I kinda thought that they shouldn't work together, but I did really like them when I had all five laid out on my stamp table.  I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And that's it for me this week.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  En Francais, Watercolor Wings, Vintage Verses
Ink:  Summer Starfruit, Concord Crush, Pale Plum, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White
Paper:  Summer Starfruit, Whisper White
Accessories:  white baker's twine, Dimensionals

Friday Flashback: Broadsheet Alphabet

Woohoo, it's Friday!  And time again for another Friday Flashback.  Today's featured stamp set is Broadsheet Alphabet so you know there will be some scrapbook pages.  Oh look!

Best of Shelli

Scrapbook pages.  I so miss Baja Breeze!  But I'm loving that we have Lost Lagoon now.

Nursery Times

Here's a name frame I did for a baby gift basket.

Flower Fancy

And another one, I really like how the flowers turned out on this one.

Baroque Motifs, Strength & Hope

Two more name frames.  At this point I think I know too many pregos!

Array of Sunshine, Sweet Shoppe Alphabet

And here's the sign for last year's Mad Hatter tea party.  So, nary a card in the whole bunch from the archives, and today's all-new project is another scrapbook layout:

Wish it wasn't dark there on the left side but I kinda can't help where the window is in my craft room, the right side is always lighter than the left.  Hubs and I took these pics at Leeds Castle in August 2011; you can see the photos here and here on my other blog.

Anyway, click on the picture to see it larger.  I was surprised (and happy!) with how fast this layout came together--as soon as I saw the peacock photo, I knew I had to use that patterned paper from the Country Club Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired).  There were so many bright colors in the photos that I decided to go with a neutral for the page base, and I used the bright Glorious Green for my title (sadly retired).  Whee for more scrapbook pages done!

That's it for me today.  Cheers, peeps, and have a great weekend!

Supplies, last photo only:
Stamps:  Broadsheet Alphabet
Ink:  Glorious Green, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Midnight Muse, Whisper White, Country Club SSK
Accessories:  None